Alcohol problems not being spotted by GPs

2nd August 2012

A study by researchers has found that many doctors are struggling to spot drinking problems unless their patients turn up drunk.

From an overview of 39 previous studies by Leicester University researchers, involving 20,000 patients, they found that when patients are not already intoxicated, GPs on average are only able to identify 40% of problem drinkers and that hospital doctors were only slightly better in diagnosing 50%. Researchers found that mental health specialists were able to identify 55% of problem drinkers.